A broken street lamp.

Parts of a concrete pillar, hurled meters away.

Spilled liquids, the destroyed front of a BMW.

A cyclist's shoes, thrown off his feet by the force with which the SUV grabbed him and pushed him away.

The wheel, bent and caught on a post.

Fragments of closet parts that a student and her father loaded into the trunk when the BMW raced up and also hit their car.

Imprints in the metal where the father was pinched.

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The trial of the fatal accident in Ostend in November 2020, in which the 27-year-old Lieferando courier and the student's father were killed, has been going on for a good two months.

The woman survived with serious injuries and is still suffering massively from the injuries.

For her pain, she takes drugs containing opiates and other strong drugs that have all sorts of consequences for the body and psyche.

A fracture in her thigh does not heal properly, the hearing of the visually impaired woman is limited and she is in a wheelchair.

According to a medical examiner, the nerve pain in the chest will probably remain.

It is unclear whether the woman, who did intensive sport before the crime, will ever walk normally again.

Accident analysts disagree

The man in the dock, 40 years old, sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in 2018 for tax evasion and withholding wages and has repeatedly been conspicuous for road traffic offenses over the years, has apologized to the victims and their families.

He says he drove too fast and therefore lost control in the curve from Sonnemannstrasse to Oskar-von-Miller-Strasse.

For him, this process is everything.

The public prosecutor's office has charged him with murder because they came to the conclusion that the man deliberately drifted with the stabilization systems switched off in order to "impress other road users with his particularly risky driving style".

Was that what caused the accident?

Or was it the result of driver error, as the accused says?

So:

That's what the jury is trying to find out and doing everything in their power to do so.

The judges requested vast amounts of additional data from BMW, inspected an SUV and had video recordings made.

During the past few days of the hearing, she heard two experts on the course of the accident, one commissioned by the defense and one appointed by the court.

Hour after hour, the accident analysts explained pictures of the crime scene and simulations, lectured on static friction and sliding friction, cornering forces and cornering speed limit, steering wheel angle and Kamm's circle.

Even after three days this is still not finished.

What can be reliably derived from the data?

The defense expert came to the conclusion that it was a driving error.

The court-appointed expert disagreed on many points and said that, according to his analysis, the drift had been deliberately initiated: "From a technical point of view, it can be judged that this maneuver was intended." just before the start of the curve, the accelerator pedal was pressed with a kickdown.

In the curve, he switched from the left to the right lane.

1.5 seconds before the collision with the cyclist, he began to counteract the swerving rear end, but one second before the impact, the accelerator pedal was still 40 percent depressed.

The impact occurred at around 80 kilometers per hour.

The foot was never on the brake.

The defendant says he accelerated and changed lanes to get ahead of his acquaintance who was traveling with him.

When he noticed that the rear was slipping away, he slowed down.

He couldn't say why he didn't brake.

The court has scheduled further hearings through the end of June.

It is unclear whether the verdict will be pronounced later this month.